Many thanks to our friends at the VRMM for sharing this short video with us. It has a great message about respect and tolerance for all veggie-kind. Please share this with all of your vegivore friends so that they, too, will realize the devastating effects of vegetable cruelty.
And please remember, all ye lovers of leeks, protectors of parsnips, defenders of daikon (don't know what daikon is? you should!)...love vegetables -- don't eat them!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Vegetables or Not?
Hello, vegetable huggers everywhere! I received an interesting e-mail this weekend from Kathy C. in Buckhannon, Ohio. Kathy says:
"Dear Ms. Hunsaker, I have often heard you tout the virtues of our veggie friends Corn and Potato. However, have you ever stopped to think that they are actually not members of the vegetable family at all? They are actually starches! What say ye now?"
Kathy, I appreciate your candid concern. It is true that when eaten, the body synthesizes corn and potatoes as starches. Indeed, their starch content is quite higher (and their fiber and chloroplasts levels lower) than traditional vegetables. However, does that make them any less lovable? Any less deserving of our admiration and protection? I think not! In fact, it is the firm belief of the ASPCV that the outward appearance of our earth-grown friends is infinitely more important than what's inside them. Please, open your heart and embrace vegetables of all varieties! And as always, remember: love vegetables, don't eat them.
"Dear Ms. Hunsaker, I have often heard you tout the virtues of our veggie friends Corn and Potato. However, have you ever stopped to think that they are actually not members of the vegetable family at all? They are actually starches! What say ye now?"
Kathy, I appreciate your candid concern. It is true that when eaten, the body synthesizes corn and potatoes as starches. Indeed, their starch content is quite higher (and their fiber and chloroplasts levels lower) than traditional vegetables. However, does that make them any less lovable? Any less deserving of our admiration and protection? I think not! In fact, it is the firm belief of the ASPCV that the outward appearance of our earth-grown friends is infinitely more important than what's inside them. Please, open your heart and embrace vegetables of all varieties! And as always, remember: love vegetables, don't eat them.
Cruelty to Vegetables
Good morning, my fellow activists! Today's entry comes from our dear friend Ronald Holden, a writer for the "Seattle Food Examiner." Holden writes:
"Pity the parsnip. Rue the rutabaga. Artificially germinated, forced to sprout in a furrow, nurtured (if you can call it that) in a bed of manure, raised with indifference, virtually ignored until it reaches market weight. Then it's thoughtlessly deracinated, mechanically decapitated, mercilessly skinned, and, in a final act of stultifying callousness, boiled alive.
"Fruit and veg of other species fare no better. Corn is stripped from its parental cob. Parsley is hacked to death. Spinach is chopped and creamed, potatoes routinely whipped, pumpkins eviscerated, grain thrashed and flailed. Who's there to coddle and console a carrot? Provide foster-care for an orphaned banana? Instead, there's jubilation when cherries are doused in alcohol and set afire.
Think about this: by "harvesting" a string bean, we're kidnapping the plant's children. What does it do to our humanity, when, three times a day, we kill vegetables just to feed our voracious animal appetites?"
Thank you, Ronald, for your compelling words. Friends, let us not forget that we have an important duty to protect and preserve our veggie friends everywhere -- if not for them, if not for their families, then for our own sense of well-being. When the world screams for caesar salad, carrot sticks, and creamed corn, we must answer them with the demand of justice for our sprouty friends. Always remember: love vegetables, don't eat them.
"Pity the parsnip. Rue the rutabaga. Artificially germinated, forced to sprout in a furrow, nurtured (if you can call it that) in a bed of manure, raised with indifference, virtually ignored until it reaches market weight. Then it's thoughtlessly deracinated, mechanically decapitated, mercilessly skinned, and, in a final act of stultifying callousness, boiled alive.
"Fruit and veg of other species fare no better. Corn is stripped from its parental cob. Parsley is hacked to death. Spinach is chopped and creamed, potatoes routinely whipped, pumpkins eviscerated, grain thrashed and flailed. Who's there to coddle and console a carrot? Provide foster-care for an orphaned banana? Instead, there's jubilation when cherries are doused in alcohol and set afire.
Think about this: by "harvesting" a string bean, we're kidnapping the plant's children. What does it do to our humanity, when, three times a day, we kill vegetables just to feed our voracious animal appetites?"
Thank you, Ronald, for your compelling words. Friends, let us not forget that we have an important duty to protect and preserve our veggie friends everywhere -- if not for them, if not for their families, then for our own sense of well-being. When the world screams for caesar salad, carrot sticks, and creamed corn, we must answer them with the demand of justice for our sprouty friends. Always remember: love vegetables, don't eat them.
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